Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

This book is the ultimate reference for both beginners and power users to PC-BSD?the free, easy-to-use operating system based on FreeBSD. Existing power users will learn how to look under the hood and contribute to the global PC-BSD community. PC-BSD is turning into a hassle-free alternative to Linux on the desktop.Enjoy secure, virus-free computing Quickly become a power user What you?ll learn How to completely customize your desktop to suit your personality and quickly access your favorite applications How to find and install quality, no-cost software How to keep your system secure, virus-free, and up to date How to perform common tasks such as playing music and video, sharing files, and gaming How to integrate the PC-BSD desktop into your network How to become part of the PC-BSD community Who this book is for

You don't have to be a Unix user to enjoy the PC-BSD operating system. Even if you're fairly new to computers, this book will quickly get you started using and enjoying PC-BSD. Existing power users will discover new usage tricks and learn how to advance their PC-BSD skills. Table of Contents Introducing PC-BSD Installing PC-BSD Customizing the Desktop Getting Around Performing Common Tasks User System Settings Administrative System Settings Push Button Installer System FreeBSD Packages FreeBSD Ports Getting Help Getting Involved Advanced Tasks Becoming a Developer

Synopsis

PC-BSD first began back in early 2005 with a simple beta release, which only provided a basic graphical installer to get a system loaded with FreeBSD 6 and KDE 3. This release was simply to test out the functionality of our installer and to begin laying the groundwork for a new method of package management for the open source desktop. However, the biggest drive for creating PC-BSD actually began in the years prior to the first release, as I had begun to dabble in open source desktops on our family computers. Our first experience with open source on the desktop was very mixed. Naturally, not all hardware would work properly, and after some initial struggles we ended up with some fairly stable systems. However, as we began using the systems on a daily basis, we quickly ran into other problems in the area of package management that could not be easily solved. By design, the various open source systems would simply treat every software package as a part of the core desktop. Thus, when we wished to perform updates to a particular application, the software manager would determine which other packages on the system needed to be updated to complete the task. While this would usually work without a hitch, too often for our comfort something would end up getting changed or broken in a (seemingly) unrelated piece of software just from doing something simple such as trying to update a small desktop application.

Synopsis

PC-BSD has had more than 900k downloads in the first half of 2009 alone. The company creating PC-BSD is backing this book fully, and this is the only book on the market covering PC-BSD. PC-BSD is the fastest-growing consumer open source operating system, growing faster than any Linux variety.